Maldives U21 Women's National Netball team through to finals

The Maldives U21 Women's National Netball team secured victory in the semi-finals against Chinese Taipei and qualifies for the finals with a 51-39 score. This makes the Maldives team the Asian Youth Championships Group B's best team.

Maldives will be facing off against Pakistan in the final round tomorrow (4th July 2025). Pakistan secured their finals spot by defeating Japan in a 64-39 victory.

This tournament began with competing nations split into two groups. Group A has nations that are in the top 5 of Asia's netball rankings, which are India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Group B has nations that rank from 6th to 11th in Asia's netball ranking, which includes Maldives, Pakistan, Japan, Chinese Taipei, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

The final match of the Asian Youth Championship will decide the 6th and 7th rankings of the Asian Youth national netball teams. The match will be held tomorrow (4th July 2025) at 6am, Maldives time.

Save from five players, the rest of the Maldives U21 Women's National Netball team is full of new players in the national scope. Coach Neesha Haleem has expressed great adoration due to the fact the team has done really well with less experienced players, which speaks to their potential.

"Not only am I happy with the result, I'm happy with the teams performance as well. Our team is doing exceptionally well after a 5-year hiatus, especially at this level of the sport," Coach Neesha said.

The team began training and preparation for the Asian Youth Championship three months prior. In an attempt to give the newer national players some experience, the team competed in a tournament in early June in Hong Kong and came out at third place.